Rahul to lead Congress delegation to China on CPC invitation

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will lead a party delegation on a week-long visit to Beijing from January 15 on the invitation of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) as part of the regular party-to-party exchanges between the two countries.

The other members of the delegation that will be led by Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi are Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kumari Selja, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajiv Satav and Sushmita Dev.(PTI Photo)

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will lead a party delegation on a week-long visit to Beijing from January 15 on the invitation of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) as part of the regular party-to-party exchanges between the two countries.

The visit will take place after Gandhi returns from his vacation abroad. On December 31, the Congress V-P had announced on Twitter that he will be travelling for the next few days.

The other members of the delegation are Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Kumari Selja, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Rajiv Satav and Sushmita Dev.

A CPC delegation had met Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Rahul and other senior leaders during its visit to India in May last year. The delegation, led by politburo member Han Zheng, had then also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the past, Sonia had led a Congress delegation to Beijing from October 25 to 29, 2007 at the invitation of the CPC and interacted with the then Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao besides others senior members of the ruling party. She again visited China in August 2008 to attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

There have been regular party-to-party exchanges between the CPC and the Indian political parties for many years now.

On September 19, 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping met Sonia and Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and discussed measures to enhance exchanges and shared experience on governance and organisational building.